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Home > Family > Colorado Schools Experiment With Lengthening the School Day

Colorado Schools Experiment With Lengthening the School Day

by Nicole Harms on December 06, 2012

Nicole Harms

About the Author

Nicole Harms is a 30-something mom of three adorable girls. A seasoned writer, her work has appeared on USAToday, the New York Stock Exchange, and eHow.com. When she is not writing she is busy scrapbooking, doing crafts or reading with her kids, or volunteering at school.

About the Blog

WhatToExpect.com supports Word of Mom as a place to share stories and highlight the many perspectives and experiences of pregnancy and parenting. However, the opinions expressed in this section are those of individual writers and do not reflect the views of Heidi Murkoff of the What to Expect brand.

Parents in several Denver-area communities are going to have to get used to seeing their kids less and less as the school district tests out longer school days. Starting in the fall, nine Denver-area schools will keep kids in school longer, letting them out at a time closer to the time their parents get off work.

According to theDenver Post, four Denver-area school districts have been given $1 million to study the benefits and drawbacks of a longer school day in 2013. These schools are part of a pilot program in Colorado that aims to see what happens to kids if their school day is similar to the work day of their parents.

The program is flexible, so schools can decide on their own start and ending times, but the end result will be that kids are in school longer every single day. The money offered is to be used to pay for the extra staff and time to implement the program. Advocates of the program claimed it would help those kids who have nowhere to go after school, while giving teachers more time in the classroom teaching.

My gut reaction to this announcement is to pity those poor kids. After all, everyone needs a little down time, and kids need a chance to interact with their parents. My daughter started full day school this year in first grade for the first time, and I feel like I never get a chance to see her — and her school day is only until 3 p.m.!

And what about extracurricular activities that take place outside of school? Will kids have the chance to volunteer, get an after-school job, or pursue a non-school sports team if they are stuck in school until 5 or 6 in the evening?

Personally, I think this money could be better spent elsewhere. Perhaps, rather than sticking all of the kids in school for hours on end, it could be used to fund programs for at-risk kids who need somewhere safe to go after school. I know if it were my kid in that district, I would be livid! I want my kids home, with me, right where they belong!

What do you think? Are longer school days the answer to the educational and social concerns of today's kids?